1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns the use of a directory-enabled server to monitor and manage devices on a network enterprise. Specifically, the invention relates to the use of an LDAP directory proxy to detect and interface with legacy devices in order to incorporate such legacy devices into the directory-enabled server network management scheme.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, computing network environments are comprised of numerous computing devices, such as workstations and servers, and other network devices, such as printers, scanners, and the like. Maintaining and administrating these numerous computing devices and network devices in a networked environment usually requires a significant amount of time and effort by a network administrator. For example, a network administrator typically configures each network device for integration into the network by setting appropriate network information such as a server domain name and an IP (Internet Protocol) address corresponding to the network device. The network administrator also configures each network device according to its capabilities and according to the desired functionality of the network device in the networked environment.
Unlike a simple personal computer having an operating system with plug-and-play capability which can automatically recognize and configure a local peripheral, a networked environment typically requires the network administrator to manually connect and configure each new device that is added to the network. In addition, network configurations can change frequently as new network devices are connected and as existing network devices are moved around within the network. In addition, a given network device may need to be reconfigured by the network administrator in order the change the network-accessible functionality of the network device according to the needs of the network users. For example, the sorting capability of a network printer may initially have been made unavailable by the network administrator because sorting is time consuming and the printer is located in a busy office area. If the printer is later moved to a less busy office location in which sorting is desired, the network administrator would have to reconfigure the network printer in order to support the sorting capability. A network device would also be reconfigured when a new option is installed on a network device, such as the installation of an envelope feeder on a network printer. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that the level of effort required by the network administrator to configure and maintain the network devices on a network increases dramatically with the number of network devices on the network.
The administration of each network device by the network administrator is often performed locally at the location of the network device. One conventional administrative technique is for the network administrator to enter and/or select network settings and capabilities of a network device from a user interface of the network device, such as a front panel and/or keypad. Another known technique is for the network administrator to use a standardized network administration tool for remotely accessing a particular network device in order to enter and select the network settings and capabilities for the network device. For example, the network administrator may use a centralized SNMP tool to remotely access a network printer via the SNMP protocol in order to change its IP Address or to change one of its functional options, such as sorting.
Regardless of the whether the settings and capabilities of a network device are entered in the network device locally or remotely by the network administrator, the selected settings and capabilities of the network device are also typically entered by the network administrator into a centralized network location, such as a network configuration file on a network server, to publish the network settings and capabilities of the network device for access by other network devices on the network. In this manner, other network devices can become aware of, and can utilize, the shared network functionality of each particular network device. Of course, it can be appreciated that problems can arise if the configured settings and capabilities of the network device do not actually correspond to the published settings and capabilities of the network device. If the published IP address of a given network device does not match the actual IP address which was set in the network device, other network devices will be unable to access and utilize the given network device via the network.
In addition, a user at a workstation may read from the published capabilities of a network printer that it supports printing on legal-size paper and then try to send a print job to the network printer which requires legal-size paper, when the network printer actually only supports printing on standard, letter-size paper. Accordingly, the detailed and duplicative network administration tasks of configuring each network device and of entering the configured settings and capabilities of each network device into a centralized network location can become overwhelming and can result in synchronization errors between the data in the centralized network location and the actual configuration of the corresponding network device. It can be appreciated that the frequency of such discrepancies increases dramatically with a large number of network devices on the network.
One solution to the aforementioned administration problems is reflected in the recent trend towards the use of directory servers for maintaining and managing network devices within a network enterprise. Such directory-enabled management tools use a directory structure for the centralized network location in which to store and maintain the selected network settings and capabilities corresponding to each network device in the network enterprise. A separate entry is provided within the directory structure to contain the aforementioned information related to each network device. The entries are organized in the directory structure in a hierarchical fashion wherein the directory structure has separate branches for each type of network device. For example, the directory structure would have a branch for network printers, a branch for network computers and other branches for other types of network devices, wherein the branch for network printers has a sub-branch for ink jet printers, a sub-branch for laser jet printers and a sub-branch for dot matrix printers. The sub-branch for ink jet printers would have a plurality of entries for storing the selected settings and capabilities corresponding to each of the ink jet printers on the network.
Preferably, a standardized schema is utilized to define the format for each entry in the directory structure, thereby providing a uniform format for containing the network settings and capabilities of each network device. In this manner, the directory structure residing on a directory-enabled server provides a centralized location in which the network settings and capabilities of each network device is published for access by all other network devices. Access to such directory-enabled servers is typically implemented via some type of standardized directory protocol for efficient publication and retrieval of information to and from the directory structure. Examples of such protocols are the x.500 directory access protocol and its lightweight relative, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). The use of such a directory-enabled server to maintain and manage network devices in a network enterprise provides a very efficient network management scheme when coupled with a directory-enabled management tool which provides an interface for a user, such as a network administrator, to access and modify the information in the directory structure of the directory-enabled server. Such a directory-enabled management scheme would preferably utilize LDAP over x.500 for a communication protocol with the directory-enabled server because LDAP generally creates less network traffic than x.500.
The use of a directory-enabled network management scheme can significantly reduce the time and complexity required for the network administration of all network devices on a network enterprise. For example, a directory-enabled management tool can utilize standard directory functions such as complex queries, batch mode operations, and generalized entry modifications, in order to manage and modify entries within the directory structure of the directory-enabled server on a large scale. Therefore, network devices in a network enterprise having a directory-enabled server can be centrally managed and accessed anywhere on the network by accessing the directory-enabled server with a directory-enabled client, such as a directory-enabled management tool.
For example, a network administrator can efficiently access and modify a common group of network devices via directory query and modify commands from a remote location via the internet. It can be appreciated that such network management capabilities can greatly increase the efficiency of network management in large-scale network environments. In addition, directory-enabled network management schemes provide for the extension of the capabilities of the network devices over a larger network enterprise, such as the internet. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that a large-scale network enterprise may have several directory-enabled servers distributed across various networks which comprise the overall network enterprise, in order to manage the network enterprises within the domain of each particular network.
The trend towards the use of directory-enabled servers for network management has been reflected in the efforts of the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF), and specifically in the Directory Enabled Network (DEN) initiative and the Common Information Model (CIM) initiative. These efforts have focused on the broad concept of using directory structures for the management of network devices on a network, and on creating a common data format for representing network elements on a network within the data structure of a directory-enabled server. The DMTF, DEN and CIM initiatives, however, have not provided solutions to the problems associated with implementation of a directory structure for managing network devices in a network enterprise. Specifically, the use of a directory-enabled server to manage network devices raises problems similar to those of the traditional approach to network management regarding how the information related to each network device is entered and maintained in the directory structure. It is desirable to reduce the effort required by a network administrator to enter and update information related to each network device within the directory structure. Accordingly, an implementation of a directory-enabled network management scheme is needed which provides a mechanism for efficient publication of entries corresponding to each network device into the directory structure.
In addition, problems can arise with the use of a directory-enabled network management scheme when mismatches occur between the actual network settings and capabilities of the network device and the published network settings and capabilities in the entry of the data structure corresponding to the network device. These mismatches can occur because changes to the network settings and capabilities of the network device may be made manually at the network device, via a conventional SNMP network management tool, or may be made directly to the entry in the directory structure by a user, such as a network administrator. Accordingly, an implementation of a directory-enabled management scheme is needed which provides reliable synchronization between the network settings and capabilities published in the entry of the directory structure and those of the network device itself, regardless of where the changes to the settings are made.
Lastly, the implementation of a directory-enabled network management scheme generally assumes that all network devices in the network enterprise are directory-enabled in order to support the directory-enabled server. For this assumption to be correct, each network device must have the ability to communicate via the selected directory protocol, such as LDAP, and must also have appropriate logic in order to support the directory-enabled management functions. Such a network management scheme does not take into account the large number of legacy network devices currently in use which do not have the capability to communicate using a directory protocol, such as LDAP, and which to not have logic incorporated to support such directory-enabled network management functions. Given that these legacy devices will still be useful for many years to come, it is preferable for a directory-enabled network management scheme to accommodate such legacy devices in a mixed, heterogeneous, network enterprise which includes both directory-enabled network devices and legacy devices. Accordingly, a directory-enabled network management scheme is desired which resolves the foregoing problems.